The present invention relates to systems, methods, and devices used to generate a spark as used, for example, in survival tools. Specifically, the present invention relates to a spark-generating device in which a strike plate is contained inside a housing for directing, focusing, and controlling the direction of the spark.
Spark-generating survival tools, also called fire-starting tools, are generally known and widely used by outdoor recreationists (back-country hikers, skiers, and campers, for example), by professional outdoorsmen (hunters, game-wardens, lumberjacks, and emergency responders, for example), and by the military. Often survival depends on the ability to generate a spark to ignite tinder that can in turn light moss, fine branches, and needles. And, frequently such devices are used in windy, wet conditions. Conditions that make traditional wax-covered (waterproof) matches ill-suited to the task at hand.
Other devices widely used to kindle fires include various types of lighters, in which a supply of fuel such as butane, alcohol or the like is stored in a reservoir within the body of the lighter. Conventional lighters, such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,898,991 to Cox and U.S. Pat. No. 1,066,405 to Goldstein, operate on the principle of dispensing such supply of fuel from the body of the lighter and igniting it with a spark created by the operation of a striker against a pyrophoric element, also called a flint. Cigarette or cigar lighters therefore present the advantage of providing a flame that will typically last longer than that of a match. However, lighters have some of the same disadvantages as matches. More particularly, lighters are similarly difficult to handle in windy or rainy conditions.
In light of the many drawbacks and limitations of conventional matches and lighters, lighting kits, more suitable for lighting outdoor fires, have been developed. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,402,029 to Sampson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,188,192 to Levenson and U.S. Pat. No. 4,698,068 to Jensen, which disclose various combinations of magnesium-based ignitable material with a pyrophoric element and a striker. More particularly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,402,029 discloses a method of kindling fires using a particular magnesium alloy as the igniting material. This method basically includes the steps of producing some shavings of ignitable material from a stick of Mischmetal-magnesium alloy and subsequently striking the stick itself with a hard object (the stick thereby also serving as the pyrophoric element) to create a spark to ignite the shavings. U.S. Pat. No. 4,188,192 to Levenson discloses a fire starting apparatus comprising a body of shavable magnesium-based alloy and a separate pyrophoric element secured to the body. The apparatus accordingly provides a single composite structure serving both as the source of magnesium shavings and as the spark generating element. In both of these devices, the striker is not provided with the unit. Devices of this type generally produce the dazzling white flame and high temperatures characteristic of the instantaneous combustion of magnesium.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,698,068 to Jensen discloses a fire-igniting device having a case adapted to receive a rod of shavable magnesium and a small pyrophoric element secured to the rod. A striker, attached to the outside of the case, is also provided to scrape shavings of magnesium and to create a spark when the striker is brought into contact with the pyrophoric element. Fire starting tools according to the Jensen patent, although more practical and effective than those disclosed in earlier patents, have several limitations. First, the user must produce shavings of flammable material as a step of the fire starting process. Second, it is desirable for the tool to be suited for repeated use. Therefore, the rod of the fire-starting tool must be large enough to provide a sufficient quantity of flammable material to light more than one fire. However, although the pyrophoric element secured to the rod must be of sufficient size for ease of operation with the striker, such pyrophoric element must be small enough so as to not reduce appreciably the amount of magnesium available to create shavings necessary to light several fires. Finally, the magnesium combustion generates intense heat during a very brief moment (typically under half a minute), rendering fire lighting generally dangerous and particularly difficult under rainy or cold conditions.
Yet other devices include a weatherproof housing containing a strike plate and a striker (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,628 issued on Jan. 18, 1994 to Hutchens et al.) Hutchens et al. instruct a fire starting kit having an ignition device, a supply of combustible tinder material, and a hollow case in which the ignition device and tinder are stored.
However, all the above fire-starting devices have failed to address directing spark in windy conditions. So, an improved fire-starting device should not only be usable in wet or windy conditions for an extended period of time, and be more durable than those using shavable, ignitable material to allow for numerous fire starting, and it should be more convenient and safer to use than presently known prior art devices, it should also provide means for directing the spark toward the tinder in windy, wet conditions.